"TRUNK OR TREAT"
"CHURCHES" CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN WITH ZOMBIES, DANCING SKELETONS, "HAUNTED HAYRIDES" & "SPOOKTACULARS"
BY HEATHER CLARK
SEE: https://christiannews.net/2018/10/30/churches-celebrate-halloween-with-zombies-dancing-skeletons-haunted-hayrides-and-spooktaculars/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Conservative, Christian-identifying churches nationwide are hosting Halloween-themed events throughout the month of October, some featuring or including Halloween-centered sermons and performances, haunted hayrides, and/or costume contests with children and adults alike dressing up as skeletons, ghosts, witches and other images of death or evil.
Chet Gallagher, a missions pastor who formerly served as a Nevada police officer, recently posted a short video of a “trunk or treat” event being held at Journey Church in Lebanon, Tennessee, pastored by Erik Reed. He said in the clip that he decided to stop and record video of the happenings outside of the church “to expose how absolutely horrific and wicked it can be for these ‘trunk or treat’ events.”
Gallagher then walked to a van that was parked near the entrance to show that sitting inside the back of the open van was a life-size skeleton, with an inflatable angry ghost attached to the side of the vehicle. He noted that the parking lot was still busy after the event was over.
“This is in front of a Christian church, friends. How can something so demonic be displayed at one of the largest churches in Lebanon, Tennessee?” he asked. “Again, all this hoorah on this so-called trunk or treat, and this is a representation. What is wrong with this picture?”
Gallagher also shared a photograph of a sign at nearby Shop Springs Baptist Church, led by Bo Irvin, which advertised that it was holding a “fall festival,” which includes a costume contest. The church has since posted photos of the event online.
One photograph shows three young girls with their face painted, one with plastic fangs in her mouth, and another donning a skeleton costume with smaller skulls on her dress. Another photograph shows a man with a skull in the back of his jeep and a ghost hanging inside.
A third photograph shows a mother donning a Wicked Witch of the West costume in reference to “The Wizard of Oz,” and a fourth photograph includes a woman with elaborate face paint in the fashion of “El Dia De Los Muertos” (The Day of the Dead).
A photograph also displayed the trophy for “best costume,” which depicts a headless skeleton holding its skull in its hands.
A number of churches nationwide either hosted, plan to host, or took their youth out for a “haunted hayride,” including Chatham Friends Church in Snow Camp, North Carolina; Stony Creek Community Church in Stony Creek, New York; Fellowship Baptist Church in Maineville, Ohio; and Freedom Church of Osage Beach, Missouri.
“It’s going to be AWESOME! We will have a costume contest, games, candy, lots of food, and of course, a scary hayride,” Freedom Church wrote on its social media page.
CityLight Benson Church in Omaha, Nebraska, co-led by Tyler Zach and Alex Marquez, permitted its parking lot to be used on Saturday for an area “Zombie Walk” as a means to “make friends” with its neighbors in the city.
“Over 1,000 dressed-up zombies will begin congregating in our church’s parking lot at 6 p.m. We will be provid[ing] food and a free photo booth. This will be a great way to let the city know who we are!” the CityLight website reads.
Church by the Glades in Coral Springs, Florida, led by David Hughes, presented a series of Halloween-themed messages called “Spooktacular” throughout the month of October, including sermons entitled “How to Hug a Vampire” and “Escaping a Haunted Mansion.” Services included Halloween-spun live remakes of secular hits, such as Michael Jackson’s “Scream” —performed with a cemetery theme—and George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone”—performed with dancers dressed as skeletons.
“We all have scary skeletons in the closet. Whether it’s something that has afflicted us for years or something that happened just yesterday, we all are looking to escape the haunting that comes from past mistakes. Join us for ‘Escaping a Haunted Mansion’ as we talk about leaving the past in the past and looking forward to fulfilling our purpose in Christ,” the church website reads.
On Oct. 29 and 30, Church by the Glades also hosted trunk-or-treat in the church parking lot, with admission being one bag of candy. Last year’s sermon series centered on Harry Potter with a “Hogwarts Halloween” theme.
The Church at Lake Forest in Walls, Mississippi, led by Christopher Sykes, hosted its “Spooktacular” on Sunday evening, featuring costume contests and a giveaway for a Nintendo Switch. The sermon series for the month is the Halloween theme “Ghost,” which refers to the Holy Spirit.
“SPOOKTACULAR is a family-friendly event that includes an amazing service, high-energy worship, costumes, games, food, and candy for all kids!” the church website states.
Compassion Church in Hartwell, Georgia is holding a block party on Halloween night to “celebrate our city.” It will similarly give away a Nintendo game system during the event, as well as a 50″ television.
Passion Church in Maple Grove, Minnesota, led by Jonathan Brozozog, also recently presented its annual Michael Jackson “Thriller” performance with a Halloween theme, and held a separate costume parade for the children. The Oct. 21 sermon was entitled “Haunted House,” and a costume and dance party is scheduled for Halloween night for middle and high school-aged youth.
SHOULD CHRISTIANS PARTAKE?
Some churches state that celebrating Halloween is a matter of conscience, and is up to each individual. Newspring Church in Anderson, South Carolina writes on its website that Christians “must not impose our personal conscience issues on others.”
“The Bible doesn’t directly say not to participate in Halloween. What the Bible doesn’t explicitly prohibit, we have the freedom to make decisions about using wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit to lead us. If we listen to Jesus and do what He says, He will never lead us away from Himself,” it states. “If dressing in costumes and going door to door offends your conscience, don’t do it. If it doesn’t bother you, celebrate Halloween.”
Matt Chandler of The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas similarly released a video last week in which he opined that Halloween is, to most people, “probably far less about demons and witches” and “far more about candy and costumes and fun for the kids.” He pointed to Scripture in the New Testament about meat offered to idols and said that if one’s “conscience is pricked,” they shouldn’t celebrate Halloween, but if one’s “conscience is clear,” they should use the event within boundaries to meet one’s neighbors and practice hospitality.
However, others state that Halloween presents serious spiritual concerns because it subtly introduces children to evil under the banner of fun or dress-up.
“Demons are for real. Witches are for real. Sorcery is for real. There is nothing good or clean or funny about any of it,” wrote Alan Morrison of Diakrisis International. “To encourage children to be involved in such things in any way is surely irresponsible and can ultimately be damaging to their spiritual health.”
“It is indeed true that Christ ‘disarmed principalities and powers’ and ‘made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them’ (Col. 2:15); but it is bizarre in the extreme to make a joke out of those evil powers, even impersonating them at fancy dress parties,” he said. “It completely minimizes that evil power (and the power of the gospel to take away that power) if we just join in the world’s jokey, festive, celebrational attitude toward the dark purveyors and vehicles of that evil power.”
John Ramirez, a New York City evangelist who had been involved in Santeria and Palo Mayombe for over two decades before being set free by the power of Christ, also has spoken strongly on the topic from experience as a former occultist.
“Let’s get it straight. People come to the church because the Holy Spirit draws you to the church. Our job is to preach truth … Let’s stop mixing this whole situation with the world and the Church, because you know what you get when you mix things up? You get something that’s deformed, and Christ is never in it,” he said in an interview posted to YouTube. “So, let truth be truth, and let’s stop playing games with the things of God. Let’s stop playing games and dressing it up and calling it Jesus.”
“Jesus is not in Halloween,” Ramirez, author of “Unmasking the Devil,” said. “C’mon. I practiced these things for 25 years. … There were different levels how we celebrated Halloween. There were different levels how we put witchcraft on people’s door depending on how they dressed the door up. … When you carve the pumpkin, when you put the pumpkin at your door, you are inviting that principality into your house.”
“Why is it that we need to celebrate something that has to do with the world? Something that has a demonic history about it, how is it that we are going to slap the name Jesus on it and make it ours?” he asked.
The late author and preacher Art Katz once mourned in his sermon “And They Crucified Him,” “[W]e ought to look different, speak differently, act differently, that there ought to be such a savor and fragrance about us of Christ that it is a savor of death unto death itself and life unto life to others. The fact that the world can so easily tolerate us, the fact of the almost complete absence of reproach, let alone persecution, it itself a shameful testimony that we are so [much] like the world that we cannot be distinguished from it. We have lost even the difference, the sense of difference, between that which is sacred and that which is profane.”
2 Corinthians 6:17-18, and 2 Corinthians 7:1 exhorts, “Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
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THE APOSTATE CHURCHES:
BIBLICAL VIEWPOINT:
The Sorry State Of Christian Reasoning Today, As Evidenced By A Laodicean Look At Halloween
SEE: http://the-trumpet-online.com/sorry-state-christian-reasoning-today-evidenced-laodicean-look-halloween/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
A Response to Fox News’ take on Christians and Halloween
On this October 31st, in the year of our Lord 2018, I was made aware of an article on Fox News that tried to justify Christians partaking in the customs of Halloween:
My first thought was, why are Christians reading Fox News? Are they actually interested in learning doctrine from an organization that employs open sodomites, and is otherwise hostile to Bible-believing Christians?
As I read the article, I thought a response was needful, as the errors promoted in this essay are very common among believers.
She starts by recounting her relatively conservative upbringing regarding Halloween, and how that changed over time. Notably, she claimed that partaking in Halloween had no effect on her:
As I entered my teenage years, my parents set me free to dress up as non-Biblical characters and run around the neighborhood rather than the fall-festival, recognizing that I was not going to confuse trick-or-treating for worshipping Satan. And in the end, I think most people would say I turned out OK.
So the first thought she puts in her readers’ minds is that trick or treating is not worshipping Satan. And with her own life as proof, it causes no lasting harm.
Obviously, these arguments hold no water. One could play a video game where one kills in gory detail, and not confuse that with actual murder. And I am sure there are many people who played such vile games that “turned out OK.” Clearly, the fact that one sin is not as far along a path of depravity as another is not justification for a sin. And the fact that one turns out alright later in life, does not answer the question of whether a given behavior is pleasing to God.
Now it might seem that I am going overboard by treating those introductory statements of hers as some kind of arguments for her position. And if she followed up the rest of her article with any coherent arguments justifying her position, I would have overlooked these statements. But these “arguments” are about as coherent as anything else she says in this article trying to justify her position. So I felt the need to deal with them also.
The author goes on to accuse those who would express disapproval of the choices made regarding celebrating Halloween of “judging” and “casting stones”:
We aren’t celebrating evil. In fact, we carry the light of Christ with us on Easter just as much as we do on Halloween. But here’s the funny thing I’ve found among Christian parents in particular. We’ve gotten good at judging what one another does for Halloween. Those who feel firmly that Halloween shouldn’t be celebrated gasp at those who allow their kids to partake in the festivities. And those who allow their kids to partake in dressing up and trick-or-treating enjoy poking fun at those who would prefer to wear Biblical costumes.
So I can’t help but wonder what difference could we make as Christian parents if we simply chose to proceed in love and without casting stones?
Notice that even the mildest expression of disapproval (gasping at someone) is likened to “judging” and “casting stones.”
Tragically, this generation of easily offended Christians has forgotten what the Bible says about judging and casting stones.
The modern practice of making a figurative use of our Lord’s words to chastise anyone who calls on believers to change their ways, is a wholesale wresting of the verses in question. Behold:
John 8: 4-11 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? … He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her…. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Notice first that the stones that they were discussing were literal stones. Not words of rebuke. Not a gasp of disapproval. But actual stones, that according to the law, after a proper trial under the auspices of the duly constituted civil government, were to be picked up and thrown at the adulterers until they were dead.
Notice further that the Lord called her to repentance of her sin. He told her to “go and sin no more.” If “casting stones” means rebuking a believer as so many modern day professing Christians believe, then the Lord himself is guilty of this “sin.”
As is often the case in the Bible the very verses she referenced refuted the point she was making. Calling someone to turn from her sins is not casting stones.
Similarly, professed followers of Christ nowadays think that criticizing a fellow believer’s behavior is somehow “judging” as in, “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Time forbids a discussion of this verse, but take note that if one reads the context (Matthew 7:1-5) the verses are actually saying something quite different than this untoward generation might think.
As one final point on this topic, note that she contrasts “casting stones” (by which she means expressing disapproval) with “love”:
So I can’t help but wonder what difference could we make as Christian parents if we simply chose to proceed in love and without casting stones?
Now I understand that we could be wrongfully judgmental with our fellow believers at times, and sometimes we need to just show grace. We can’t go around trying to correct everything that we see that is being done wrong, even when we are certain we are right.
But in their haste to avoid being harsh, many Christians of our day have all too often fallen off the narrow path onto the other side of the issue. It is like we have collectively forgotten verses like this are in our Bible:
Leviticus 19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
According to the above verse, to withhold a “judging” rebuke, in some circumstances, is not loving but is instead hateful.
What the author writes next is interesting (but in a sad way):
Several years ago, when I will confess, I was actually beginning to feel guilty for letting my kids participate in Halloween due to much of what I was hearing and reading in the Christian world about why they shouldn’t trick-or-treat.
So the author felt guilty. Was it the Holy Ghost and her conscience? Or was it false guilt caused by bad doctrine and misguided, self-righteous Christians? Let’s find out what she says!
I read an article from a friend, and fellow author, Jessica Thompson, that brought much relief to my unnecessary burden.
She wrote, “But I am calling to all moms out there to remember for just a couple minutes that your standing before God doesn’t change depending on what you do on October 31. To be honest, it doesn’t change no matter what you do any day of the year. You could throw the biggest block party, and hundreds of people could get saved because of the light you were to your community – and God loves you exactly the same way he loves the other parent who listened to the convictions of their hearts and stayed home. So can we please remember that we are all made righteous before God because of the work of Christ? And can we please stop trying to find our righteousness in our own traditions?”
So her fellow author relieved her guilt by reminding her that “we are all made righteous before God because of the work of Christ’. She says our “standing before God doesn’t change … no matter what [we] do any day of the year.”
Does she mean we could do anything, and it doesn’t change our standing before God? In her context, she just listed celebrating Halloween or staying home. But what about murder? I know she didn’t say that, but the question is relevant nonetheless when we examine her statements in detail.
When she says we are made righteous by the work of Christ, this is true, in the right context. We are saved by grace through faith alone. Christ died for our sins and it is only through him that we are righteous. And whether we celebrate Halloween or actively abstain from such, this is still true.
But how does this fact have anything to do with the question at hand? The question at hand is this: Is it wrong in the sight of God for Christians to trick or treat, etc. or is partaking in Halloween an allowable difference of opinion?
The answer her friend gave sheds no light on this topic, and provided her no reason to ignore her conscience. For in the context of her friend’s argument for liberty to celebrate Halloween, we can also murder, fornicate, or get drunk – and it would still be just as true, that we are made righteous by Christ. Why we could even “worship Satan” outright as the author alluded to earlier, and even such a bad work as that would have no bearing on our standing with God. God would still love us “just exactly the same way,” as the author’s friend stated.
So the idea that we are made righteous by the work of Christ is true, even if we were to commit murder, etc. Now presumably the author would not justify murder. But if you can’t use that argument to justify murder, you can’t use it to justify Christian liberty to celebrate Halloween either. Both positions stand or fall on their own merits. This idea that since believers are made righteous by the work of Christ this somehow answers the question of whether a believer should partake in Halloween traditions is a non-sequitur.
The author then ends her article with this conclusion:
So there you have it. The pressure to make the perfect decision about Halloween is off. You are free to shine the light of Christ wherever you find yourself on this All Saints Eve.
But as we have seen, nothing she wrote gave any valid argument as to why she should disregard the issue of celebrating Halloween as a Christian. We are not “free to shine the light of Christ wherever we may find ourselves” (such as in a strip club for instance.)
I hope, gentle reader, that whatever your view is regarding celebrating Halloween, that you can still see that this Fox News article shed absolutely no light on the matter.
Sadly, this article described a lady who had real concerns about whether she ought to celebrate Halloween and she was confused into thinking it was fine to ignore her conscience by an incoherent response that referenced our “standing in Christ.”
Notably, this mistake is quite common among believers today. There is little understanding regarding the distinction between our salvation by grace through faith alone, and our responsibility to live righteous and holy lives, (by faith and works), in order to be accounted worthy to stand before the Lord at his judgement seat.
How we live in in this world right now, matters a great deal to God. Even blood bought believers will give an account to God, for the things done in the body, whether they be good or bad.
Time does not allow me to explain why partaking in pagan holidays is not right for a Christian, or to discuss exactly where the line is to be drawn regarding what constitutes participating in such an activity, but I will leave you with a few thoughts:
Lest you think that God doesn’t care about something as small as partaking in a pagan holiday, please remember that God killed a believer for simply trying to catch the ark as it was about to fall (II Samuel 6:6-7.)
He also killed believers for not properly partaking of the Lord’s supper; is it possible that God disapproves of even giving the appearance of partaking in a pagan holiday? (I Corinthians 11:30, I Thessalonians 5:22)
Our Lord said we will give account for even every idle word: Is it possible that idle partaking of pagan practices might merit the same examination by God?
Matthew 12:36 But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
And finally, did God approve of these pagan customs in Ezekiel’s day described below? Or were the believers commanded to learn not the vain customs and the way of the heathen? (And do the practices described below remind you of any holiday customs today?):
Ezekiel 10:1-4 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
